One Life to Live Commentary

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I didn't like it, so sue me: The worst of OLTL 2013:
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Robin Strasser, the 1982 winner of the Emmy Award for Outstanding Actress in a Daytime Drama, has been one of the most loved -- and hated -- performers in that genre for over 30 years. In addition to One Life to Live's Dorian Lord, the quintessential woman you love to hate, she created the role of Rachel Davis on Another World and played Christina Karras on All My Children. For her portrayal of Dorian, she won the 1996 Soap Opera Digest Award as Outstanding Lead Actress and the 1996 Soap Opera Update Award for Best Actress. She also won the 2001 Soap Opera Digest Award for Outstanding Scene Stealer for her portrayal of Hecuba, the 300-year-old witch on Passions.

Born in the Bronx and raised in Manhattan, Ms. Strasser graduated from the High School of Performing Arts and attended the Yale School of Drama on a full scholarship. Theater being her first love, she continued to perform there while working in daytime television. She appeared on Broadway in Michael Cristofer's Pulitzer Prize-winning The Shadow Box, and played the coveted role of Jenny in Neil Simon's Chapter Two. As a founding member of the American Conservatory Theatre, she has worked with such prestigious companies as the Williamstown Theatre Festival, the Mark Taper Forum, and, most recently, Playwrights Horizons in New York City. In 2004, Ms. Strasser starred in The Tale of the Allergist's Wife at the Papermill Playhouse.

On primetime television, Ms. Strasser has starred in several miniseries, Baby M, Glitz, Blind Faith, and Jackie Collins' Lady Boss. She has had recurring roles on Knots Landing and Coach, and made guest-star appearances on such hit shows as Murphy Brown; Dear John; Murder, She Wrote; China Beach; The Young Riders; Highway to Heaven; Civil Wars; and Dharma and Greg.

Ms. Strasser served as president of L.A.'s Women in Theatre for two years, produced three Equity Waiver Productions, sold her first teleplay, and formed a video production company to produce videos in the areas of women's health and fitness. Her first, a six-hour, three-tape series on menopause, was released in 1999.

Ms. Strasser is a certified Level One Kripalu Yoga teacher and leads workshops on yoga as support for mid-life transition. She is an avid hiker and gourmet cook, and has renovated 18 houses and apartments. She currently shares her home with her 15-pound Maltese, Scooter, whom she acknowledges is a surrogate daughter.

Ms. Strasser is active in fundraising for AIDS research, the New York City Blood Center, and Telicare. She is on the Advisory Board of the American Menopause Foundation and has been a pro-bono spokesperson for the National Osteoporosis Foundation. Her proudest accomplishment, though, is being a mother to her two grown sons, Nicholas and Benjamin Luckinbill.